South pulls All-Star sweep

After three years of frustration in the annual North/South All-Star softball series, the once-dominant South was in need of a confidence booster. The southerners got it from a Carlsbad hitter and an Onate pitcher in the opening contest of the three game series in Clovis.

On Friday night, the South got a 1-0 victory over the North in the opener as Carlsbad’s Christina Romero singled in Las Cruces’ Amanda Sanchez in the bottom of the seventh inning. In the nightcap of the doubleheader, the South continued its momentum by routing the North 12-2.

Although a third game will be played today, the South clinched its first series win since 2004. Before the North went on its recent stretch of success, the South had won 13 of the first 17 series played.

The first game was a pitcher’s duel between Onate’s Antoinette Diaz of the South and Farmington’s Alyssa Rahm for the North.

Diaz, who transferred to Onate from Cobre prior to her senior season, allowed four hits — three by Aztec’s Haley Hayes — and only one runner beyond second base as she threw seven shutout innings.

“This is the best feeling ever. It’s just perfect,” Diaz said.

Rahm didn’t give up a hit until the sixth, but a couple of singles in the seventh did her in. Artesia’s Laiken Velasquez, with one out, hit a ball that took a bad bounce past North shortstop Amity Livingston of Manzano. Sanchez, pinchrunning for Velasquez, stole second before the game was delayed for 15 minutes when the sprinkler system in the outfield automatically went on.

After the interruption, Romero went with a Rahm offering and poked it into right field for the winner.

“I had hit against her twice, so basically I was just going off of what I’d seen,” Romero said. “It was a little outside, so I tried to send it that way since I couldn’t pull it.”

In the nightcap, Alamogordo pitcher Alexis Sifuentes held the North batters in check while the South played solid defense.

At bat, the southerners scored a pair of runs in the third inning — a rally that included an RBI-single by Silver’s Katie Youngs. The South then broke the game open in the fourth by tallying four runs off Piedra Vista hurler Jayme Fuller.

Velasquez, Onate’s Nicole Garcia and Sifuentes all struck for singles in the fourth inning, but the big blast was a two-run double by Carlsbad’s Ashley Ingram into the right-centerfield alley. The South, ignited by a triple from Carlsbad’s Brittney Kent, capped its scoring with a six-run rally in the seventh.